Losartan Versus Atenolol for the Treatment of Marfan Syndrome
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2011-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Marfan syndrome is a genetic disease of our connective tissue, which provides material and
support for our skeleton, muscles, blood vessels and other parts of our bodies. People with
Marfan syndrome may be tall and thin with slender, tapering fingers, long arms and legs, and
spine curvature. They often have heart and eye problems. In some patients, the condition is
very mild and the person has few or no symptoms. Others are always at risk of
life-threatening problems, which usually involve damage to the valves in the heart or
weakening of the large blood vessels leading from the heart. If the blood vessels become
weak, they can balloon out (dilate) and break (rupture), which might cause the person to die
suddenly. We have only a limited ability to stop the progression of disease in Marfan
syndrome. Typically we use medicines that lower heart rate or blood pressure (or both). But
this does not prevent the disease and very few drugs work well enough to keep patients from
needing surgery or dying suddenly because a blood vessel has torn open. Our objective is to
study two medicines to see if one, or both, can improve blood vessel function in patients
with Marfan syndrome. One (Atenolol) belongs to a group of drugs called beta blockers and is
often used to treat high blood pressure. It is the most common drug that is currently used to
treat patients with Marfan syndrome. The other (Losartan) is also used for high blood
pressure, but works in a different way. This study will help us to find better ways to treat
people who have Marfan syndrome and to identify early changes in blood vessel function that
may help to prevent long-term complications.